After flood, folks trickle back to Bristol Park

Bristol Park residents moving back home after devastating April flood.
Ben Twingley/btwingley@pnj.com

Troy Moon, pnj.com 11:59 p.m. CDT July 20, 2014

Dave and Kay Pavlock moved back to their Bristol Park home more than a month after April's flooding.

Bristol Park residents Dave and Kay Pavlock sit on their new furniture in their home on July 15 after spending more than two months in a hotel room following the devastating flood in April. Though the couple lost everything below four feet in their home they feel lucky to be some of the first in their neighborhood to be back home.(Photo: Ben Twingley / btwingley@pnj.com)

For two and a half months, Dave and Kay Pavlock lived in a small, extended-stay hotel room near University Mall after their Bristol Park home was ruined after April's historic flood.

But on Wednesday, the couple moved back home after months of rebuilding.

So how does it feel to be sleeping in their old home and old bed again?

Well, it's great to be home, both say. But the bed?

"It's new," said Kay Pavlock, 72, as she showed visitors around the rebuilt home. "Everything that's under 4 feet is new."

That's how high the water came on the night of April 29. The Pavlocks, longtime Pensacolians, watched water rush through every crevice of the upper-middle class home in Cantonment. For a while, the couple thought they might drown in their kitchen.

Dave Pavlock, 74, a former Escambia County commissioner, placed chairs on the 42-inch high kitchen counter and and the two sat on them because the water was already waist-deep in the house.

"We were sitting on chairs on the counter," Dave Pavlock said. "And our feet were still in the water."

About 3:30 a.m., a rescue boat puttered up to the Pavlocks' front door and took the couple and other residents to a few homes in the Bristol Park subdivision, where they spent an hour. Then a bus showed up and took them to a shelter in west Escambia county. The next day, the Pavlocks checked into their extended-stay hotel room.

"The whole unit was smaller than our bedroom," Dave Pavlock said.

The Pavlocks had flood insurance, one of a minority of families that purchased flood insurance in the subdivision near 11 Mile Creek. Not that they had ever had experienced flooding in their 14 years in the home.

Their son, a State Farm agent in South Florida, convinced them to make the purchase.

"He said, 'Mom, you live in Florida,' " Kay Pavlock said. " 'What if there's a hurricane and the water pushes up through the tributaries?' "

It didn't take a hurricane.

"No it didn't," said Dave Pavlock, shaking his head in amazement. "It didn't take a hurricane."

The Pavlocks consider themselves to be fortunate to have had flood insurance, allowing them to rebuild promptly.

"A lot of people are having to work out of pocket or borrow money," Dave Pavlock said. "It's a real financial strain on a lot of folks. Unless you live on top of a mountain, you need to get flood insurance."

Bristol Park residents Dave and Kay Pavlock moved back into their home on July 15 after spending more than two months in a hotel room following the devastating flood in April. Though the couple lost everything below four feet in their home they feel lucky to be some of the first in their neighborhood to be back home. (Photo: Ben Twingley / btwingley@pnj.com)

Bristol Park residents Dave and Kay Pavlock sit on their new furniture in their home on July 15 after spending more than two months in a hotel room following the devastating flood in April. Though the couple lost everything below four feet in their home they feel lucky to be some of the first in their neighborhood to be back home. (Photo: Ben Twingley / btwingley@pnj.com)

Dirt marks the water line at Bristol Park residents Dave and Kay Pavlock's home. The couple was able to move back into their home on July 15 after spending more than two months in a hotel room following the devastating flood in April. (Photo: Ben Twingley / btwingley@pnj.com)

Many Bristol Park residents are still working to get back into their homes. Dave and Kay Pavlock moved back into their home on July 15 after spending more than two months in a hotel room following the devastating flood in April. They believe that the neighborhood will bounce back. (Photo: Ben Twingley / btwingley@pnj.com)

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For more than two months, contractors worked on the Pavlock home, ripping up floors, Sheetrock, fixtures. Everything under 4 feet in the house. Then, everything was replaced, from furniture to refrigerators. The home needed so much work, that the Pavlocks used the construction opportunity to reconfigure some of the blueprint of the house, reshaping the bedroom and bathroom and even removing a fireplace.

Dave Pavlock said about 75 percent of the work has been done, but there are still rooms, such as the office, that need to be rebuilt. There is new fencing that needs to be installed. Some doorknobs and outlets.

But they're home.

Not everyone is so fortunate. Of the 10 homes on the Pavlocks' cul-de-sac, only three are occupied.

"It's still pretty empty," Dave Pavlock said, standing on the front lawn, a buzz of electric drills and saws and the thud of hammers coming from all directions as work continued on other homes. "The house across the street is abandoned."

Their neighbor to the left had moved in a few days before the Pavlocks, the first to return to the street. Another neighbor couple stayed in a camper outside their flooded home.

"He was his own contractor," Dave Pavlock said. "It's slow, but people are starting to come back."

The couple said they're positive that, in time, the neighborhood will return to its calming form.

"We love the neighborhood," Dave Pavlock said. "We have underwater utilities and sidewalks and it's close to the interstate and it's quiet and we have nice neighbors. We enjoy it here."

Cantonment area residents were heavily hit by last week's flooding, as seen from the Bristol Park neighborhood. Most of the houses in the area have large piles of debris stacked along the streets. (Photo: Katie King/kking@pnj.com)

Cantonment area residents were heavily hit by last week's flooding, as seen from the Bristol Park neighborhood. Most of the houses in the area have large piles of debris stacked along the streets. (Photo: Katie King/kking@pnj.com)

Cantonment area residents were heavily hit by last week's flooding, as seen from the Bristol Park neighborhood. Most of the houses in the area have large piles of debris stacked along the streets. (Photo: Katie King/kking@pnj.com)

Cantonment area residents were heavily hit by last week's flooding, as seen from the Bristol Park neighborhood. Most of the houses in the area have large piles of debris stacked along the streets. (Photo: Katie King/kking@pnj.com)

Cantonment area residents were heavily hit by last week's flooding, as seen from the Bristol Park neighborhood. Most of the houses in the area have large piles of debris stacked along the streets. (Photo: Katie King/kking@pnj.com)

Cantonment area residents were heavily hit by last week's flooding, as seen from the air. Most of the houses in the area have large piles of debris stacked along the streets. (Photo: Katie King/kking@pnj.com)

Cantonment area residents were heavily hit by last week's flooding, as seen from the Bristol Park neighborhood. Most of the houses in the area have large piles of debris stacked along the streets. (Photo: Katie King/kking@pnj.com)

Cantonment area residents were heavily hit by last week's flooding, as seen from the Bristol Park neighborhood. Most of the houses in the area have large piles of debris stacked along the streets. (Photo: Katie King/kking@pnj.com)

Cantonment area residents were heavily hit by last week's flooding, as seen from the Bristol Park neighborhood. Most of the houses in the area have large piles of debris stacked along the streets. (Photo: Katie King/kking@pnj.com Katie King/kking@pnj.com)

Cantonment area residents were heavily hit by last week's flooding, as seen from the air. Most of the houses in the area have large piles of debris stacked along the streets. (Photo: Katie King/kking@pnj.com)